Vagrant Story Rebalance Mod

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Hello everyone. Found this site via InsaneDifficulty.com, so I thought I'd post here as well. I'm in the process of making a Vagrant Story mod that rebalances both skills and enemies, for an improved experience of the game.

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I was unable to continue with the original game when I found myself always using the same cheap tactics. Felt forced to drop it cause of boredom.
A shame, since I can't stop hearing the game is a master-piece "and I know it is".
Maybe the problem was me, that once I found those cheap tricks, started to use them.

Same happens with FFT/FF8, you can't just ignore them and say "I will do fair play and don't do that", the existence of those exploits is kind of irritating.

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There was a link for the demo, but I can't recommend it at this point. The finished version should be out by the end of January.

Yeah, this game is nearly perfect in my eyes. Probably the only one I'd put this much effort into.

Gotcha, I can't wait! These last few months have been like a constant Christmas of mod releases of basically the best of everything ever.

By the way, do You mind if I do a sort of blind test run series on this? I oten blind test run mods as a hobby, figured it'd be best to ask first. Funnily enough I was looking for an excuse to do a run of this for a while, it's hands down one of my favorites on the PS1. It always seemed funny to me that of all things, VS was what they referenced more than anything in Tactics Ogre, which is what I do tests of most of the time.

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By the way, do You mind if I do a sort of blind test run series on this? I oten blind test run mods as a hobby, figured it'd be best to ask first. Funnily enough I was looking for an excuse to do a run of this for a while, it's hands down one of my favorites on the PS1. It always seemed funny to me that of all things, VS was what they referenced more than anything in Tactics Ogre, which is what I do tests of most of the time.

Not at all. If you're familiar with the original game, you shouldn't have too much trouble with the mod. And I appreciate all the feedback I can get. VS has always been a niche title, I'm glad there are people willing to re-experience it after all this time. I do hope you have a grasp of the underlying mechanics, though; otherwise you might find it too difficult. TBH the game never did a really good job of conveying some things to the player (how to deal damage effectively, for instance). In any case, I welcome the interest, so yeah feel free to do your thing if you feel like it.

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Not at all. If you're familiar with the original game, you shouldn't have too much trouble with the mod. And I appreciate all the feedback I can get. VS has always been a niche title, I'm glad there are people willing to re-experience it after all this time. I do hope you have a grasp of the underlying mechanics, though; otherwise you might find it too difficult. TBH the game never did a really good job of conveying some things to the player (how to deal damage effectively, for instance). In any case, I welcome the interest, so yeah feel free to do your thing if you feel like it.

That I do, it's something I have gone back to time and time again, and was actually introduced to it originally a few years ago when a pretty well known Dark Souls guy suddenly made a series on it. The decision to buy it came dang near instantly. As for the damage mechanics, they may be a tad out there, but it's incredible to see a game actually go out of it's way to show that these armored soldiers and monster units are actually protected by their respective armors. At any rate, looking forward to it!

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Follow-up question! Would you also like some feedback from a player who goes into the mod knowing nothing about Vagrant Story? Or is this more of a mod for veterans?

Sure, that'd be interesting. I didn't think someone's first playthrough would be through my mod, I wonder how that could turn out. One thing is you won't have a basis for comparison, so you won't know what I added from what was already there. Although that's not really an issue since you can always go back and play the original game. More importantly, I hope you enjoy the story and music which are stellar even by today's standards.

You could say the mod is for veterans in the sense that it adresses some long-time issues people had with the game. It's not so much a hardtype mod as it's a rebalance mod. My main goal was to make it more playable and interesting, instead of just harder; I wouldn't want people to drop it because of difficulty. I can't say it will be a walk in the park for you but I suppose I could give you some directions if you're struggling too much. There are only a few basic rules to understand, anyway.

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I've just beaten Duane with this mod. Looks very challenging so far! Love the increased drop rates (currently equipped with hagane guisarme & scorpion) and increased monster power (dragon dealing 250+ damage with tail attack is nuts, not a fan of random status effects tho). The mod is fantastic, keep developing it please!

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I've just beaten Duane with this mod. Looks very challenging so far! Love the increased drop rates (currently equipped with hagane guisarme & scorpion) and increased monster power (dragon dealing 250+ damage with tail attack is nuts, not a fan of random status effects tho). The mod is fantastic, keep developing it please!

Glad to hear it! Make sure to experiment with break arts, they're a lot more useful now. The final build should be out soon.

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So, I've just passed Snowfly Forest. The lizards are tough, I'm looking for a reliable way to deal some 20+ damage per hit to them (tried polearm + gem, sword + gem, break-arts for both, no results so far). No hints please, I'll figure it out myself

A couple of questions:

1) Do I have to start a new game once a final build is out?

2) Have you considered rebalancing/revamping offensive chains? Due to heavy shot and life drain presence (for fighters specifically, I know that there're other chains for mages), I think that they lack a bit of variety.

3) How about adding RISK to magic usage? (equal to MP usage for example?) Investing in INT heavily seems a bit OP if you know where to look for certain spells (especially that you gain now single-hit spells in addition to AoE) and have a suitable weapon to chain MP.

Edited April 3 by kotpeter

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By the way, I've just encountered a bug: when I defeat the Air dragon (the one after Earth elemental fight), I get teleported to Godhands workshop and cannot move there. Hopefully it gets fixed before release.